four-color heroics from spectrum games

[az]

has anyone at all heard of the four-color heroics super hero role-playing game from spectrum games?

[order99]

 You're talking about the one by Cynthia Celeste Miller? I have a copy.

 The artwork and production values are amazing-lots of color, lots of Public Domain Comic panels and characters with some digital clean-up.

 The system is explained before the Character Creation process, which IMHO is a good thing here-the system has a lot of Fiddly Bits. It's a basic Dice Pool array using D10s. You have Attributes ranging from 1 (Aunt May struggling with a jar of peanut butter) to 9 (Galactus punches Planet Earth hard enough to kill the dinosaurs) with 3 being average (Rick Jones hauling a heavy amp up the stairs). You can pick Facets to upgrade and downgrade (Big Ben Donovan is a burly dude with a 5 Action but not a lot of grace-he takes the Facets Downgraded Athletics -1 and Upgraded Brawn+1). You can down or Up up to 3 of your dice in this manner BTB). For every Point in an Attribute you roll a D10, one of which is always an Impact Die (read for Crits/fails on a 1 or a 10)and any die reading 6+ is a success (Impact Die on 1 subtracts a Success and a 10 adds 2 instead of 1). Skills give either a +1 (professional) or a +2 (mastery) Facets can Downgrade one or more Dice to a D8 or Upgrade to a D12. Powers (and Flaws) May either modify an Attribute, have a Rating of its own, or just a Special Effect on its own (Player/GM agreements may be needed). Big Ben Donovan from above would roll Action of 4D10+1D6 in a Track Meet or Dance Contest, but 4D10+1D12 when tossing furniture or Sumo Wrestling.

 You have Keywords (Hero or Villain for your Alignment, Superhuman if some of your Powers are innate, Normal Human if all Powers come from gadgets or artifacts, Robot or Alien or Merman to assume different strengths and vulnerabilities, Sorcerer if your Powers are mostly Spells etc). The Attributes are (Action (strength/toughness/speed etc) Fighting (ranged/close combat) Alertness(perception and reflexes) Brainpower (knowledge.memory/willpower) and Charisma (inspiration/intimidation etc). Your Powers begin with a Narrow Scope but cost more points for a wider Scope)...so an Aquaman-alike might have several narrow powers (Tough Hide, Swim Fast, Breathe Water, Communicate with Fish etc at different Ratings, or he might take Tough Hide (narrow Power) at one Rating and take a Full Scope "King of All The Seas" with a full description at another Rating, possibly with its own Facets...the system can get as fiddly as you want, subject only to your available Points to build with and GM approval.

 There's also an interesting mechanic called Momentum-get some awesome Dice Rolls, gain a benefit to save for later use. It does add a little bit of flavor to things.

 So i'll make a Johnny Quick analogue:

 Jack Speed (Jack Cavendish, Newsreel Reporter) Keywords: Human, Mystic-Empowered, Hero.

Action 5 (Downgrade Brawn -1)

Combat 4

Alertness 5 (Upgrade Observation +1)

Brainpower 4 (Upgrade Willpower +1)

Charisma 4

Skills: Film Industry +1 Journalism +1  Damage Limit (Muh Hit Points!) 18

Flaws: Must recite a Magic Phrase to activate his Powers-must be free to enunciate clearly, cannot be chocking on dust, strangled or drowning, having Dental work done etc . Powers only last for 3+1D10 Turns and then must be renewed. Attacks meant to break enchantments could temporarily cancel Jack's powers.

Powers: The Speed Mantra-allows for travel over land or in the air at Speed 7. Substitutes for Reflexes while active and Upgrades both Aim and Close Combat by +1. (Weird Speed Tricks such as Invisibility and Tornado creation will occur many, many many issues later with Experience points-for now, Jack can land a dozen punches a second, dodge bullets and break the sound barrier at a full sprint/flight).

 In short, the system is solid, unified and flexible, and can do just about any Golden Age hero you can imagine-Silver Age if the GM allows more point at the start or just years of XP.  Having said that, i'm not a huge fan of large Dice Pools (personal taste, YMMV) and prefer the 'Just bolt it on to the tractor-it'll go' approach of Hideouts & Hoodlums. But I would take Four Color Heroics hands-down over Champions (even more Dice Pools and you have to count the pips!) Villains & Vigilantes (Integers during Character Creation, the Power vs Power Plus Modifiers Combat Table) or the Original Marvel Superheroes RPG (much as I like MSH, FCH is just more flexible). I'd even put it narrowly above one of my past favorites Chaosium's Superworld ( FCH is better integrated and balanced point-totals-wise).

 In short, if I had a group who wanted it, i'd run it, and if a group were running it i'd play it-despite being an OSR H&H fan.  I'd say it's dirt cheap,a great read and does what is says on the tin-no buyer's remorse on my part!

preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/423237/four-color-heroics-core-rulebook

[az]

Apr 2, 2024 0:07:03 GMT order99 said:

 You're talking about the one by Cynthia Celeste Miller? I have a copy.

 The artwork and production values are amazing-lots of color, lots of Public Domain Comic panels and characters with some digital clean-up.

 The system is explained before the Character Creation process, which IMHO is a good thing here-the system has a lot of Fiddly Bits. It's a basic Dice Pool array using D10s. You have Attributes ranging from 1 (Aunt May struggling with a jar of peanut butter) to 9 (Galactus punches Planet Earth hard enough to kill the dinosaurs) with 3 being average (Rick Jones hauling a heavy amp up the stairs). You can pick Facets to upgrade and downgrade (Big Ben Donovan is a burly dude with a 5 Action but not a lot of grace-he takes the Facets Downgraded Athletics -1 and Upgraded Brawn+1). You can down or Up up to 3 of your dice in this manner BTB). For every Point in an Attribute you roll a D10, one of which is always an Impact Die (read for Crits/fails on a 1 or a 10)and any die reading 6+ is a success (Impact Die on 1 subtracts a Success and a 10 adds 2 instead of 1). Skills give either a +1 (professional) or a +2 (mastery) Facets can Downgrade one or more Dice to a D8 or Upgrade to a D12. Powers (and Flaws) May either modify an Attribute, have a Rating of its own, or just a Special Effect on its own (Player/GM agreements may be needed). Big Ben Donovan from above would roll Action of 4D10+1D6 in a Track Meet or Dance Contest, but 4D10+1D12 when tossing furniture or Sumo Wrestling.

 You have Keywords (Hero or Villain for your Alignment, Superhuman if some of your Powers are innate, Normal Human if all Powers come from gadgets or artifacts, Robot or Alien or Merman to assume different strengths and vulnerabilities, Sorcerer if your Powers are mostly Spells etc). The Attributes are (Action (strength/toughness/speed etc) Fighting (ranged/close combat) Alertness(perception and reflexes) Brainpower (knowledge.memory/willpower) and Charisma (inspiration/intimidation etc). Your Powers begin with a Narrow Scope but cost more points for a wider Scope)...so an Aquaman-alike might have several narrow powers (Tough Hide, Swim Fast, Breathe Water, Communicate with Fish etc at different Ratings, or he might take Tough Hide (narrow Power) at one Rating and take a Full Scope "King of All The Seas" with a full description at another Rating, possibly with its own Facets...the system can get as fiddly as you want, subject only to your available Points to build with and GM approval.

 There's also an interesting mechanic called Momentum-get some awesome Dice Rolls, gain a benefit to save for later use. It does add a little bit of flavor to things.

 So i'll make a Johnny Quick analogue:

 Jack Speed (Jack Cavendish, Newsreel Reporter) Keywords: Human, Mystic-Empowered, Hero.

Action 5 (Downgrade Brawn -1)

Combat 4

Alertness 5 (Upgrade Observation +1)

Brainpower 4 (Upgrade Willpower +1)

Charisma 4

Skills: Film Industry +1 Journalism +1

Flaws: Must recite a Magic Phrase to activate his Powers-must be free to enunciate clearly, cannot be chocking on dust, strangled or drowning, having Dental work done etc . Powers only last for 3+1D10 Turns and then must be renewed. Attacks meant to break enchantments could temporarily cancel Jack's powers.

Powers: The Speed Mantra-allows for travel over land or in the air at Speed 7. Substitutes for Reflexes while active and Upgrades both Aim and Close Combat by +1. (Weird Speed Tricks such as Invisibility and Tornado creation will occur many, many many issues later with Experience points-for now, Jack can land a dozen punches a second, dodge bullets and break the sound barrier at a full sprint/flight).

 In short, the system is solid, unified and flexible, and can do just about any Golden Age hero you can imagine-Silver Age if the GM allows more point at the start or just years of XP.  Having said that, i'm not a huge fan of large Dice Pools (personal taste, YMMV) and prefer the 'Just bolt it on to the tractor-it'll go' approach of Hideouts & Hoodlums. But I would take Four Color Heroics hands-down over Champions (even more Dice Pools and you have to count the pips!) Villains & Vigilantes (Integers during Character Creation, the Power vs Power Plus Modifiers Combat Table) or the Original Marvel Superheroes RPG (much as I like MSH, FCH is just more flexible). I'd even put it narrowly above one of my past favorites Chaosium's Superworld ( FCH is better integrated and balanced point-totals-wise).

 In short, if I had a group who wanted it, i'd run it, and if a group were running it i'd play it-despite being an OSR H&H fan.  I'd say it's dirt cheap,a great read and does what is says on the tin-no buyer's remorse on my part!

preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/423237/four-color-heroics-core-rulebook

Wow,that is awesome

[Adminenkainen]

I knew of it, but considerably less than I do now since order's review. I'd say, visually, it looks like a less-supported version of H&H. Mechanically, it's a very different-looking game. It seems very rules-lite, and I am skeptical of a system where ability scores seem gradually better from 1-4 and then exponentially better from 5-10 and how those numbers then relate to each other - can Aunt May get buffed up with modifiers enough to attack Galactus? (To a lesser extent, my 2nd-favorite system, Marvel Super Heroes, is guilty of this, where every stat above Remarkable represents someone far more powerful than below, so I'm not totally opposed to this...)

[az]

Apr 2, 2024 15:25:26 GMT Adminenkainen said:

I knew of it, but considerably less than I do now since order's review. I'd say, visually, it looks like a less-supported version of H&H. Mechanically, it's a very different-looking game. It seems very rules-lite, and I am skeptical of a system where ability scores seem gradually better from 1-4 and then exponentially better from 5-10 and how those numbers then relate to each other - can Aunt May get buffed up with modifiers enough to attack Galactus? (To a lesser extent, my 2nd-favorite system, Marvel Super Heroes, is guilty of this, where every stat above Remarkable represents someone far more powerful than below, so I'm not totally opposed to this...)

You are right about that

[az]

Apr 2, 2024 0:07:03 GMT order99 said:

 You're talking about the one by Cynthia Celeste Miller? I have a copy.

 The artwork and production values are amazing-lots of color, lots of Public Domain Comic panels and characters with some digital clean-up.

 The system is explained before the Character Creation process, which IMHO is a good thing here-the system has a lot of Fiddly Bits. It's a basic Dice Pool array using D10s. You have Attributes ranging from 1 (Aunt May struggling with a jar of peanut butter) to 9 (Galactus punches Planet Earth hard enough to kill the dinosaurs) with 3 being average (Rick Jones hauling a heavy amp up the stairs). You can pick Facets to upgrade and downgrade (Big Ben Donovan is a burly dude with a 5 Action but not a lot of grace-he takes the Facets Downgraded Athletics -1 and Upgraded Brawn+1). You can down or Up up to 3 of your dice in this manner BTB). For every Point in an Attribute you roll a D10, one of which is always an Impact Die (read for Crits/fails on a 1 or a 10)and any die reading 6+ is a success (Impact Die on 1 subtracts a Success and a 10 adds 2 instead of 1). Skills give either a +1 (professional) or a +2 (mastery) Facets can Downgrade one or more Dice to a D8 or Upgrade to a D12. Powers (and Flaws) May either modify an Attribute, have a Rating of its own, or just a Special Effect on its own (Player/GM agreements may be needed). Big Ben Donovan from above would roll Action of 4D10+1D6 in a Track Meet or Dance Contest, but 4D10+1D12 when tossing furniture or Sumo Wrestling.

 You have Keywords (Hero or Villain for your Alignment, Superhuman if some of your Powers are innate, Normal Human if all Powers come from gadgets or artifacts, Robot or Alien or Merman to assume different strengths and vulnerabilities, Sorcerer if your Powers are mostly Spells etc). The Attributes are (Action (strength/toughness/speed etc) Fighting (ranged/close combat) Alertness(perception and reflexes) Brainpower (knowledge.memory/willpower) and Charisma (inspiration/intimidation etc). Your Powers begin with a Narrow Scope but cost more points for a wider Scope)...so an Aquaman-alike might have several narrow powers (Tough Hide, Swim Fast, Breathe Water, Communicate with Fish etc at different Ratings, or he might take Tough Hide (narrow Power) at one Rating and take a Full Scope "King of All The Seas" with a full description at another Rating, possibly with its own Facets...the system can get as fiddly as you want, subject only to your available Points to build with and GM approval.

 There's also an interesting mechanic called Momentum-get some awesome Dice Rolls, gain a benefit to save for later use. It does add a little bit of flavor to things.

 So i'll make a Johnny Quick analogue:

 Jack Speed (Jack Cavendish, Newsreel Reporter) Keywords: Human, Mystic-Empowered, Hero.

Action 5 (Downgrade Brawn -1)

Combat 4

Alertness 5 (Upgrade Observation +1)

Brainpower 4 (Upgrade Willpower +1)

Charisma 4

Skills: Film Industry +1 Journalism +1

Flaws: Must recite a Magic Phrase to activate his Powers-must be free to enunciate clearly, cannot be chocking on dust, strangled or drowning, having Dental work done etc . Powers only last for 3+1D10 Turns and then must be renewed. Attacks meant to break enchantments could temporarily cancel Jack's powers.

Powers: The Speed Mantra-allows for travel over land or in the air at Speed 7. Substitutes for Reflexes while active and Upgrades both Aim and Close Combat by +1. (Weird Speed Tricks such as Invisibility and Tornado creation will occur many, many many issues later with Experience points-for now, Jack can land a dozen punches a second, dodge bullets and break the sound barrier at a full sprint/flight).

 In short, the system is solid, unified and flexible, and can do just about any Golden Age hero you can imagine-Silver Age if the GM allows more point at the start or just years of XP.  Having said that, i'm not a huge fan of large Dice Pools (personal taste, YMMV) and prefer the 'Just bolt it on to the tractor-it'll go' approach of Hideouts & Hoodlums. But I would take Four Color Heroics hands-down over Champions (even more Dice Pools and you have to count the pips!) Villains & Vigilantes (Integers during Character Creation, the Power vs Power Plus Modifiers Combat Table) or the Original Marvel Superheroes RPG (much as I like MSH, FCH is just more flexible). I'd even put it narrowly above one of my past favorites Chaosium's Superworld ( FCH is better integrated and balanced point-totals-wise).

 In short, if I had a group who wanted it, i'd run it, and if a group were running it i'd play it-despite being an OSR H&H fan.  I'd say it's dirt cheap,a great read and does what is says on the tin-no buyer's remorse on my part!

preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/423237/four-color-heroics-core-rulebook

I would like to know how I can create my own super hero multiverse for four-color heroics.the game is so cool

[Adminenkainen]

Ask Cynthia Miller.

[az]

Apr 18, 2024 14:35:59 GMT Adminenkainen said:

Ask Cynthia Miller.

Good idea,how can I contact her?

[Adminenkainen]

Beats me. Find her on Facebook?

[az]

Apr 18, 2024 15:01:14 GMT Adminenkainen said:

Beats me. Find her on Facebook?

Okay,thank you very much for telling me this

[az]

Here is what I should do for the four-color heroics role-playing game from spectrum games:do the same thing as Jason greenfield on Facebook,by creating my own super hero multiverse,and also,create a golden age and silver age super hero multiverse.

[Adminenkainen]

You don't need to do any of that to play any of these RPGs.